Weegies in Edinburgh

The spouse and I ventured through to Edinburgh yesterday for lunch to celebrate seven glorious years of marriage. According to the internet, copper and wool are traditionally associated with the seventh wedding anniversary. On that basis I wondered if he’d fancy a lagged hot water tank to celebrate our union, but the sponsored links suggested that a desk set, a woolly jumper or a pair of Ugg boots might be more appropriate. I was disappointed to see there was no mention of knitted hearing aid covers for me (Jo, Deirdre, if you’re reading this I think I may have spotted a gap in the market). One of the more puzzling gift links, however, was for ‘Black Toilet Paper: Sensual, trendy, sophisticated. A surprisingly unique gift idea.’ I had to concur with the last part of the statement, but didn’t feel tempted, even though it has apparently been ‘tested under dermatological and gynaecological control’. Crikey, what do people get up to with that stuff?

Returning to Auld Reekie, we had a very nice lunch and then headed off to catch a bus to Leith for a trip down memory lane. I’d forgotten how difficult it is to negotiate the pavements of Princes Street when it’s busy, and the spouse came a bit of a cropper when a superfluous button detail on the arm of his jacket caught on the strap of a woman’s handbag as he brushed past her at a particularly congested spot. There was a scream and, as he disentangled himself from the handbag which was now attached to his arm, her companions rushed to her aid thinking that he was a bagsnatcher. His West coast accent seemed to confirm the woman’s worst fears, and as she checked the contents of her bag, I prayed that nobody had pickpocketed her earlier without her knowledge. Fortunately they hadn’t, so we were able to carry on our merry way.

Once safely aboard the top deck of the No.22 bus and heading down Leith Walk, I was pleased to see that Borland’s Darts and Television Emporium is still going strong, although I think they might have diluted the purity of the concept by branching out into key cutting, going by the neon sign in the window. The surrounding area looks as if it’s been hit by a military air strike since we were last there with all the demolition going on, but the denizens of Leith are a sturdy lot and they’ve got all that dart throwing and television repairing to take their minds off it.